Thursday, June 14, 2007

Will it Sink or will it Float?

Today, Lily and I are sequestered to the indoors because she's not feeling that great. She's having one of those wonderful summer colds. That didn't stop us from playing a rousing game of "Will it sink or will it float?" in the kitchen sink.

It started when Lily came into the kitchen wanting root beer and then announcing to me "Mom, I want to do an experiment!" Wanting to inspire curiosity, I decided to go ahead with it, despite being in the middle of cleaning the kitchen. When I asked Lily what she wanted to experiment on (thinking it would lead to brownie-making), she took the cap from the root beer and said: "Will it sink or float?" I had to laugh.

We proceeded to fill up the various containers of water: a rubbermaid container, a glass, and the kitchen sink (you have to get multiple things to throw things in to get an accurate picture of whether or not they'll sink or float). First, we through the cap in the glass. Result: floats. Container: floats. Kitchen sink: floats.

Next item for experimentation: a fork. It sank in all three cases. After that, we tried an apple. It wouldn't fit in the glass, so we tried the rubbermaid container. We got a sink result. Then we put it in the sink. Before we did, I asked Lily if she thought it would sink or float. She answered that she thought it would sink. I asked why and she said because it sank in the rubbermaid. So, into the sink the apple went. Much to her surprise, it floated! Enter a conversation about displacement. Lily then decided to go get her rubber ducky from the bathroom. I asked her if it would sink or float and she told me that it would float because (and I quote: "Everyone knows ducks float, mom!" I had to giggle with that answer because I flashed back a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

We would have continued with the whole sink or float experiment, but we decided that it was time for lunch so we made some mac and cheese (partially sinks, partially floats.. explain that one to me batman). I hope our summer continues to be this amusing!